This is a public forum where we can discuss the News & Rumors about upcoming Minecraft updates. If you like to live your {Minecraft} life on the edge, try using the newest snapshot to start a new game. It's great!

The newest snapshot is a HUGE teaser of at least some of the things coming in the version of Minecraft that Mojan/Microsoft are evidently insisting on calling 1.10. Since it will be next official version after 1.9, one would think they would be moving to 2.0, but evidently not. This is not being a logically-named update!!!

Anyway...there are some really terrific things coming with this update, and if you play snapshots, you can see them NOW, even as they are being developed.

Since I am such a village lover, the first thing I want to report on is what they have done already, and what I think they will be developing throughout theses snapshots, with the villages. So far, just fantastic, and loads of prettiness and fun!!!

They've removed whatever, in the past, kept villages from spawning across biome lines. They've also officially added villages in Taiga. So far that's the only biome added for SPAWNING villages, but I have a feeling they're going to increase that so that they'll spawn in any biome.

Savanna villages have had a change, in that they are all wood construction (acacia wood, logs, doors, slabs, stairs, and fences), except for the church, which is still cobblestone. This MAY be because it could become the only house of refuge, should a forge be present in the village and you don't get to it fast enough. The lava at the forge is set into the acaca logs that are the foundation for the building. So...guess what? Yup! In a very short space of time, if you don't block that lava, the whole town can burn down...except for the church!

The roads for all the villages have been changed, except for the desert villages, which still get underlayed by sandstone, with sandstone also for the surface. All other villages get an either/or situation. If there is grass where the roads spawn, they will be turned to dirt paths. If there is sand, the road will get the layer of cobblestone underneath, with gravel on the surface. If a road spawns and there's only water (whether it's a river, a pond, or an ocean), the road is generated by a single layer of whatever wood blocks are correct for whichever biome in which the well is located.

What is really fantastic, right now, is seeing these villages cross borders! You get a mix of the types of buildings from location to location--depending on which side of the border the well is located.

Let's say that there is a convergence of seven random biomes (I've seen as many as six, tonight): plains, taiga, savanna, desert, taiga, extreme hills, jungle, and river. There are possibilities for four different types of villages to generate, but only one type will be chosen.

For our "let's say village" above, if a plains village gets rolled by the dice, the buildings will be constructed from cobble and oak, the land-locked roads will be either dirt or gravel, and the water-spanning roads (bridges, per se) will be oak.

If instead, the well gets spawned in the taig, the buildings will be constructed from spruce and cobble, the grass will sport dirt paths, any sand will have gravel roads, and the bridges will be spruce planks.

When the well gets spawned in the desert, all the roads will be sandstone, and the bridges will be oak. The buildings will be sandstone, as before.

If the well shows up in the savanna, all the buildings will be made of acacia, the roads will be either dirt paths or gravel, and the bridges will be made of acacia.

There are two other things that I've noticed they are obviously working on, which also point (hopefully) to villages ultimately being spawned in any biome.

When villages are spawned on different levels, now, we see huge differences in how the roads are spawned--usually huge, huge messes!!! That's changing!!! Now, the hillsides are more graciously and gently allowing the roads to flow up and down, wherever they are generated. Even in the towns, proper, the changes in elevation are more gentle, and easier to fix. I've seen a couple of abrupt things, but mostly much easier situations with which to deal. Nice!

Farms are being allowed on different elevations much more gracefully, as well. This means that there are more farms actually HAPPENING in the villages (also that the wells are actually more centrally located, as they should be). It also means that because borders and biome types are being crossed, sometimes the farms are being generated on natural mesas, over water, or inside caves (the houses are getting this treatment sometimes, as well). It's all very cool!

I have a ton of pictures to resize and add to the next post...all about the villages. I tried to capture as many biomes in each picture, as I could. I think you will be amazed! Back in a bit, with the next post.

Be sure to click on the pictures to see them larger. The captions are on the photos, rather than here in the text.

Over the next few days, I'll add pictures and explanations of some of the other changes already implemented in this snapshot, which will be refined (and probably added to) over an unknown amount of time, until Minecraft 1.10 arrives.

Plains Village...one Farm is on top of an Extreme Hill...one Big House is in the Jungle Edge...one Library and a Small House are in the Desert...Church and other buildings are in the Plains...(keep going to next picture)...

NewVillages-14.png (588.04 KiB) Viewed 621 times

One Big House (minus its topmost layer) is right inside the Extreme Hill (it had three villagers inside)...other buildings (including two more Big Houses, another Library, a few Small Houses, and the Well) in the Plains...(keep going to next picture)...

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All mentioned in the above two photos, bordered by a larger Extreme Hills and a Birch Forest, with a River, to boot

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Plains Village linked to Taiga and Taiga Hills

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Plains Village with a River, linked to Extreme Hills

NewVillages-18.png (854.57 KiB) Viewed 621 times

The Savanna Village Forge...VERY DANGEROUS!!!

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Savanna Village Forge--Danger Removed by Cobblestone

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Beautiful Savanna Village crossing Rivert, to a Beach that fronts both Ocean and Deep Ocean

You should make sure you're using the "new" game installer and system, since it's much more efficient than it was before Microsoft took over. Just save your games and resource packs, then either remove or rename your existing .minecraft folder (Users/yourusername/AppData/Roaming) (you have to have extensions being shown in folders and invisible system files and folders being shown). Reinstall Minecraft using the new installer, then run it. Then copy (don't just move them, so you still have backups) your saves and resource packs into it, then go into the game and do all of the following.

Java uses a lot of resources. Here are some tips that might help. For one thing, if you download and install Optifine for whatever version of Minecraft you are using, it really helps your CPU run the most effectively with the game.

The download starts at adf.ly, so be careful to not download anything else...wait for the top right corner to start counting down from 5, then hit the arrow there, and the correct download will come up. Only download the one with the file name in it for Optifine.

When you install it (just double-click to run it), it will only take a second, then it will make you a new profile (that you can customize for resolution, etc.), that is titled Optifine. You will then get new options in the game. Each option, if you hover over it, is explained in easy-to-understand terms, so you can choose things that will help your particular computer run your particular game.

Even without Optifine, there are a few things you can do:

(1) In Options/Video Settings, change your view distance to somewhere between 8-12 (8 usually works pretty well for most graphics cards, whether desktop or laptop.

(2) Right under that, you'll find the FPS (frames per second) setting. Change that slider to 60. That's a good setting for most eyes, you won't see much change in the quality of the graphics, and it should then match up to the maximum that your computer actually runs (unless it's a hugely-high-end gaming computer, which obviously it's not...neither is mine).

Then start checking through all the other video settings--especially things like smooth lighting, etc. You can usually downgrade most of those without any loss of visual quality, and speed up your game, as well as saving your CPU not only extra work, but possible damage.

If you have any questions, you can always call me at 605-938-4392 (after about 2:30 PM Central most days).

Unfortunately, I already use those specific settings with the others set to minimal. I'll give OptiFine another go. Last time, I kept getting warnings telling me the file I downloaded could be harmful. >.<

With Optifine, that problem happens if you are actually getting the wrong file, usually.

I can help with that. What version are you playing? I can send you my copy of optifine, and you can install it in a snap. It's really awesome for helping your CPU cope as it should, plus you can see alternate blocks (like different-colored chickens, etc.).

I'm updated fully, I believe. Or should be. 1.9.4? That's the version I tried from the link you provided, but it still didn't like me. I'd really like to be able to play the game again on my own. All the servers I've ever played on get wiped every so often. It'd be nice to make some stuff that I get to keep! x3

That's really too bad! I have another friend who has mentioned that she has had problems running Optifine, but she can, at least run a singleplayer game, though she often has bad lag, even with minimum settings.

So...when you go to play in singleplayer. What exactly happens? Does it just sit and sog and refuse to go into the game at all? Or does something else happen? Or after you play a bit does something else happen? I'm wondering about the amount of RAM you're carrying on your laptop. That could keep you from playing singleplayer, but probably not online, since the game itself is held on the server, which allows your own computer just to have to run your player stats and not hold the whole game in memory.

Gorgeous pictures! I'm gonna have to update but I'm still fighting with Windows 10. It keeps trying to install it on me. I'll probably end up letting it install eventually but as of now, I'm still being stubborn & fighting! I'll give you a call one day soon & let you talk me through Minecraft...Thanks a bushel!!

It's very bad lag. I can get into the world, and all looks great until I try to move or look around. The camera even drags. I checked the mouse sensitivity, just in case, and that was fine. To gauge the issue, I played around until I got the camera to look up at the clouds. They move normally, then stiiiiiick, move normally, stiiiiiick. No skipping. Which is what I'd expect.

I tried turning the two things you mentioned off. Only difference was the world itself loaded a bit quicker.

4GB of RAM. Which shouldn't be enough for TS3, but that works a-okay 97.5% of the time. xD

Oh, my goodness! The RAM probably is an issue, then. TS3 works on a completely different game engine than Minecraft which is using Java and is active all the time, and that uses RAM like a sponge! 6 GB of RAM would probably be good. That's what I have, and do wish I had a couple more GB. I had a really hard time with even the lower versions of the game, when I only had 4 GB in my older XP machine. I could run TS3 just fine, then, also.

Turn off clouds and try it. I long ago did that (back when I only had 4 GB of RAM), and it worked. Also, turn off fog. Doing both of those things can save on a lot of RAM usage. Not having either of those turned on doesn't bother me in the least. I got used to it very quickly.

I hope one or both of those will do the trick for you. The only other thing I can think of is that probably your onboard graphics card is using your regular RAM in a way that when it needs it for graphics it has to borrow it with a paging file that may not be allowing enough to actually go to your graphics, but instead, the larger part of the RAM is going to run the system.

That can be changed, but in order to advise anything at all, I'd need to see your system in action and see how the paging files are set up, etc., and do some testing in person. My brother is much better at that than I am, too, though I have done it before. I usually don't mess around with all of that much, but I know it can be a problem when just following the default plan on a laptop.

Anyway...maybe turning off the clouds and fog will help enough for you to be able to play a singleplayer game. HUGS!

I did everything you suggested, minus Optifine, and changed Mipmap to 1. I can play! There's a little lag in survival, but that's fine. I prefer playing in creative. I like making mazes and floating orbs. c: